Ellesse Andrews targets individual and team pursuit
in final year junior

April 30th 2017

Ellesse Andrews comes over the top of Jade Haines to win Under
19 points race at the 2017 Oceania Championships. Photo: Con
Chronis

After winning a junior world title in the team sprint in 2016
New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews has switched her focus to the
individual and team pursuits in 2017.

Strength across the sprint and endurance events as a junior is
not uncommon but the all round ability Andrews has was on display at
the Junior Track World Championships last year. Two days after
the team sprint gold she posted one of the fastest under 19 2km individual pursuit
times in history, on
route to the bronze medal.

After taking some time off the break post World Championships
17-year-old Andrews returned to competition in December at the
Oceania Championships where she stormed to gold medals in the
team pursuit, points race and 500m time trial as well as
silver medals in the omnium and scratch race.

In her final year as an under 19 Andrews added another
national title to her collection in the 500m time trial at the
New Zealand Championships. Before setting a new personal best
of two minutes 22.469 seconds on route to a second gold in the
individual pursuit. With Andrews now holding two of the five
fastest times ever set.

August will see her again compete on the world stage at the
UCI Junior Track World Championships in Montichiari, Italy
where she is hoping to claim rainbow jerseys in the
individual and team pursuits. Before that Andrews is embracing
every opportunity she can, including riding on the road with the F.A.S.T
Cycling Team in New Zealand run by former British professional
cyclist Emma Trott.

Your father represented New Zealand on the track at
the Olympics and Commonwealth Games is that how your interest
in cycling started?

With both my parents having represented New Zealand in their
cycling disciplines, my family have always been into cycling.
When I was younger, our weekends and holidays would often
include exploring new places on our bikes with family and
friends. Cycling recreationally had always been a big part of
my childhood, but it wasn't until jumping on the track in late
2013 before I really developed my passion.

Dad has always been my coach, and has always left how much
cycling I wanted to take part in, up to me. I was never really
pushed to do the sport, and I think it was this freedom just
to enjoy it (without being hugely competitive) and dad's
passion for cycling and helping me achieve my goals, that
really set my love for Cycling.

Heading in to the 2016 Junior Track World
Championships what were your goals?

I really was just going into the competition wanting to gain
more race experience. Junior Worlds was the first competition
I had competed in outside of New Zealand or Australia, it was
so cool to travel to Switzerland and race at the UCI velodrome
in Aigle. We didn't have any set goals, we just focused on
nailing our parts of the team sprint as well as we could and
getting our processes right. For the individual pursuit I just
wanted to nail the lap times I thought I could do and ride to
plan.

Started off strongly winning the team sprint on day
one with Emma Cumming what did it mean to pull on the rainbow
jersey as the world champion?

It was an extremely special moment for me. Pulling on the
jersey, seeing our flag, and hearing the New Zealand national
anthem was a really cool moment for both Emma and I. A very
special memory, and a definite highlight of my cycling career
so far!

Winning the world title in the team sprint gave you
the set of World, Oceania and New Zealand titles in the event
did that make it even more special?

Yes, especially as all of the titles were won with my team
mate Emma Cumming! It's really awesome looking back to our
first team sprint together, at the 2014 National champs, both
of us only under 17. This was my first nationals, so looking
at the video of us during this event, and comparing it to last
year's worlds was really special. So cool to see how much we
have achieved together.

Claimed a second medal winning bronze in the
individual pursuit in 2:22.695 just three tenths of a second
outside the World Record. Your time was faster than the gold
medal winning time were you happy with your performance and
the time?

Going into this competition, I had only dreamed of riding a
time as fast as 2:22. In the qualifying ride I didn't get my
pacing quite right for the first 2-3 laps, starting a bit
slow. The 2:23 I rode in qualifying was solid but I knew there
were things I could improve if I were to ride again, so I felt
confident. Going into the bronze ride off, all I wanted to do
was improve my morning time, I wasn't even focused on the
record! In the end, I rode myself into the ground and was
really happy with the result!

So close being three tenths off that record, but overall I
couldn't have done anything to get back that time, so I was
extremely happy with both my time and overall performance.

A world title and bronze medal at your first junior
worlds to go with Oceania and New Zealand titles it was a
strong first year under 19 for you? What did you find the
biggest challenge?

Early 2016 I made the move from my hometown in Wanaka NZ, up
to Cambridge. This allowed me to have easy access to the track
and all of the coaching support. For me the biggest challenge
was not knowing if I would be focusing on endurance or sprint.
I spent a bit of time trying to do both – that was
challenging! In the end the best decision for me was to focus
more on sprint for 2016, which the coaches thought would help
me in the long-term anyway.

Started the 2017 season at Oceania Championships
winning gold in the team pursuit, 500m time trial and points
race. Did you have much of a break after Junior Worlds? A
confidence boosting result?

Achieving these results was a great start to my 2017 season,
especially with our New Zealand National Championships coming
up just two months after the event. I did have quite a big
break after junior worlds, so yes, these results were a great
confidence booster, and reassurance that I was just naturally
continuing to develop and on track to have a successful
nationals.

You were leading the omnium and looking set for a
fourth gold before you came down in a crash in the closing
laps of the points race. What happened? Must have been
disappointing to be so close to another gold and lose it that
way?

I was actually really pleased with winning silver in this
event. I wasn't 100 percent sure how I would cope with the new
format, especially as I prefer and have performed better in
the individual timed events previously. All I remember is that
the rider in front of me swung up so I followed but
unfortunately another rider overlapping my wheel when I swung
up, and crashed bringing me down with her. There were only four
laps remaining when we crashed so I wasn't able to contest the
last sprint. It was disappointing to be that close to the
gold, but I was really just happy that I had raced well under
the new format, and given it my all until the very end.

Claimed three gold and two silver from five under 19
events at the Oceania Championships great way to start the
season?

Yeah it was cool to travel to this first big event of the
season and collect a few medals in the events I competed in.
Great reassurance and a good refresher before heading into
more racing during the duration of the 2017 season.

There were a lot of close battles between yourself and
Jade Haines with each of you taking a couple of wins a
friendly rivalry between the two of you?

Jade is a really great rider, and I would say we are quite
similar, in the sense that we are both more sprint based
endurance riders. It's always great to have good, hard racing,
and Jade is one of the many talented Aussie riders who bring
it all to the table, every race!

Qualified fastest in the individual pursuit at
Nationals in 2:25.793 did you have a feeling you were on for a
good ride in the final? Did you have a specific time you were
targeting?

Going into the final, I really wanted to lower the time I set
in the qualifying round. The first few laps of my ride were a
lot faster than I was scheduled for, but I just rolled with it
and ended up feeling great spinning more. Putting out a few
faster lap times at the beginning of my final ride ended up
setting me up really well for the whole ride. All I had to do
was hold the faster times as long as I could, and when I did
begin dropping my lap times, just make sure it wasn't too bad.

Crossing the line to win gold and looking up at the
scoreboard and seeing the time of 2:22.469 did you believe it?

My mental target for the final was a 2:24, which is actually
what my schedule was for qualifying too. So, looking up to see
the 2:22 was quite unbelievable!

Third fastest time in history and to do it in February
at Nationals is the individual pursuit going to be a big focus
for you? The time must give you a lot of confidence for the
year ahead?

I've always really loved the individual pursuit, and I'm
really keen to put a big focus on improving my times in it
this year as well as contributing to the team pursuit. Last
year my main focus was the team sprint, with a bit of added IP
training, so I've never trained solely for this event. It will
be exciting to see what the bigger endurance focus this year
brings!

You have been combining sprint events (500m TT, keirin
and team sprint) with endurance events is that something you
plan to continue with or going to narrow your focus?

This year my focus is going to be on the individual and team
pursuit, which is an event that I hope to continue on with in
my career. I am still going to keep my options open for my
career in the future, still keeping lots of speed and power
work in my program.

What are your goals for 2017?

In 2017 I'm looking at increasing my endurance, and spending
time getting more miles on the road. I'll be doing a lot more
road racing with my new team F.A.S.T (run by Emma Trott),
providing some great opportunities for me over the course of
the year.

I have also been selected in the New Zealand team for the 2017
Track cycling Junior Worlds, so a lot of this year will be
based around working on my training in preparation for this
event! Overall, I'm just looking at taking every opportunity
this year that's presented to me, and making the most out of
the ones I already have! I am really looking forward to seeing
what the year brings, and can't wait to continue to develop as
a junior road and track cyclist!